FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT SIDNEY RICE - PAGE 3

As the Vikings prepare for for Sunday's game at Soldier Field with a trio of questions about their wide receivers, it's worth wondering about one of the Bears' receivers. Can Devin Aromashodu have another breakout performance against the team he exploited last season? Aromashodu, who disappeared after being quarterback Jay Cutler's preferred target in the season-opening victory over the Lions, has been on the field the last five games but he has caught just two passes. It was against the Vikings in Week 16 last season that Aromashodu had seven receptions for 150 yards, including a 39-yard touchdown pass to win the game 36-30 in overtime.

To preview conference championship weekend, we can discuss the obvious. Rex Ryan likes to talk. That Peyton Manning has a big forehead. Brett Favre sure is old. Reggie Bush has a hot girlfriend. Or, we can discuss the less obvious, the factors that generally are escaping notice in the pregame analysis but could be getting all of the attention in the postgame. Let's look at one "hidden" factor for each of the four semifinalists. Saints: Can they establish a run against the No. 2-ranked rushing defense?

TE John Carlson was a monumental bust as the team's prized free-agent signing from last offseason. The team targeted him as its top free-agent priority last year. They gave him $25 million over five years, convincing him to leave Kansas City before he met with the Chiefs. The Chiefs won that deal as Carlson caught just eight passes for 43 yards during another injury-plagued season. DT Kevin Williams turns 33 next August, but coach Leslie Frazier wants him back. Williams isn't the dominant inside force that he was early in his career, but he's still good enough on the field and a great presence in one of the league's youngest locker rooms.

If championships were decided by talent, they could just package the Lombardi Trophy in bubble wrap and ship it off to Eden Prairie, Minn., today. With the acquisition of Randy Moss on Wednesday, the Vikings became the most talented team in football, if they weren't the most talented team already. Their roster now has 13 players who have been to a combined 47 Pro Bowls. If you put the Bears and Packers rosters together, they would have 15 players who have been to 42 Pro Bowls.

MANKATO, Minn. — The soap opera that was Brett Favre is retired. It's a lot quieter, and roomier, in the part of the locker room where Pat Williams used to rule. Sidney Rice took the money and ran, presumably without a limp, to Seattle. Nearly 400 pounds of offensive tackle have been trimmed. These are not the same Vikings who went 12-4 in 2009, barely missed out on a trip to the Super Bowl and sent 10 players to the Pro Bowl. But they also are not the same Vikings who went 6-10 in 2010.

The wind may be blowing a different direction 10 minutes from now, but as of this moment, it is a whole new NFC North. The tectonic plates beneath the division shifted Tuesday when Brett Favre started whispering the "R" word. He told teammates he is done, and if he is, the Vikings' hopes of winning a Super Bowl might be as well. The Bears may have gone from the third best team in the NFC North to the second, or tied for second. And the Packers went from the hunter to the hunted.

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — When Brett Favre finally docked in the Land of 10,000 Lakes last summer, he found nothing but calm, placid waters. It has been a little different this time around. Some of it, of course, has been Favre's own doing. His on again, off again retirement created considerable waves. But the Vikings' ship already was a rockin' by the time Favre arrived almost two weeks ago. Percy Harvin, the offensive rookie of the year, has missed a lot of time with migraine headaches that are threatening to be an ongoing issue.

As shaken Seahawks wide receiver Sidney Rice lay flat on his back in the end zone after scoring the winning touchdown Sunday in Seattle's 23-17 overtime victory over the Bears, fans gave him a warped welcome to the southeast corner of Soldier Field. "Stay down you #$#@#@!" one guy yelled as doctors attended to Rice. On a day defined by resilience, Rice responded the way the Seahawks did every other time they faced adversity in a hostile environment. He overcame it. He got up. "Had to go celebrate," Rice said later.

It appears the Brett Favre-haters have been reduced to waiting for him to get injured. It doesn't seem like a very fulfilling way to live, but that would presume these people have lives. It appears the Kyle Orton-haters will have to settle for rooting solely for Jay Cutler's success instead of perversely hoping for the worst for Orton as well. And here they thought this was going to be a package deal. The supply of villains must be really, really thin. Whatever happened to the good old days when you could root against a guy who drowns pit bulls?